


Rosie Did You Let This Spider In Here To Make a Statement

by CalicoCats



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Not canon typical spiders, Web Martin Blackwood, mild body horror, set sometime after season 4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-12-22 22:04:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21083825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CalicoCats/pseuds/CalicoCats
Summary: There is a spider on Jon’s tape recorder.





	Rosie Did You Let This Spider In Here To Make a Statement

Jon is halfway through a statement when he notices an unreasonably big spider — a tarantula, maybe?— perched on his tape recorder. If he wasn’t already caught up in the reading, he likely would have fell off his chair trying to put as much distance between the spider and himself as possible.

As it is, the Beholding’s influence keeps Jon focused on the statement. It’s the account of a woman who had been in possession of an incomplete series of Leitners she’d gotten online. She’d thought they were copies of a book series she’d read when she was younger, and was now followed by a fire that would burn anywhere she stayed for more than a few days to the ground. He finishes recording it without a hitch, and says, “Statement ends.”

The spider has not moved from its spot. The tape recorder it’s standing on has not stopped recording, either. They stare at each other, Jon too afraid of startling it into motion and the spider looking like it has all the time in the world to hold his tape recorder hostage.

It’s a stalemate. Jon can’t believe he is locked in a staring contest with a spider and losing as an avatar of the Eye. His whole thing is staring.

The Beholding does decide to tell him that this spider is a giant huntsman. It should not be in London. Jon dearly wishes it would stay far, far away from London. 

It’s likely some ploy of the Web, to leave this spider here. He wonders if it was Martin’s doing. As much as Jon had tried to ignore it, he knows and he Knows that Martin has been becoming more aligned with the Web. Jon has seen the cobwebs interlaced with the stitching in Martin’s sweaters, the extra eyes that seem to never stay visible long enough to be certain they were there. The extra cobwebs in Jon’s office, left by spiders positioned there by the Mother.

That last one could be normal spiders. Jon rules that possibility out, just because he isn’t that lucky. 

Martin has been changing with the Web, though, after escaping the Lonely. He may be trying to expand the Web’s reach. Jon and the spider are still staring at each other, and Jon tried to pick up any details that might link it with Martin. 

...Would it be possible to extract a statement from a spider? If he asked, would the spider state it’s reason for being here? Does the spider have fears? Ambitions?

“Of all the fears Martin had to choose, it’s—“ Jon begins to mumble, but cuts himself off because the spider starts moving. Shit. He needs to get out of his office. In his rush, he tips over his chair and spills himself onto the floor. Jon may have faced down a ritual based on the unraveling of everything known and to be known, but this spider is much too close and too big for comfort. Would the oxygen in any remaining fire extinguishers be effective on spiders?

Did it respond to his voice? To his mention of Martin? 

It rests at the edge of his desk, eight eyes still focused on him. Jon sits up, and considers what to say next. He has a hunch that he hopes isn’t correct.

“Martin... is that you?” Jon asks. 

The spider shifts it’s legs carefully. Jon doesn’t know whether to take it as an affirmative or not.

Jon stands now, and the spider continues to watch him, still as a statue. He’s considering his next course of action when the door clicks open.

Martin steps in, carrying in a box of what are probably statements. There are now two big spiders in Jon’s office.

Jon looks at the spider, then to Martin, then at the spider again. He was going to have a heart to heart with a spider that wasn’t actually Martin. This is not a good day for the Archivist.

Martin also looks at the spider, and his expression goes from mildly confused to horrified. He rushes to pick it off Jon’s desk, and holds it like you would hold a cherished cat. Martin scolds the spider, and Jon starts to think about how he really would like to be holding The Admiral right now. He should check if Georgie and Melanie would let him see The Admiral, now that things have mostly calmed down on the world ending front.

Jon is snapped out of his thoughts when he hears Martin say, “Jon, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean for her to get in here, she just had a mind of her own sometimes and—“

Jon tries to stop him there, to say it’s mostly fine, but he’s had a very long 15 minutes having a staring contest with a spider, so he rights his chair, sits back down, and tells Martin very solemnly, “If you’re going to bring in your... colleagues, just- just let me know beforehand.”

Martin blinks with more than the standard two eyes, and says, “Of course,”

Jon is painfully aware that the tape recorder has been listening this entire time, and, now that the spider is off his desk, clicks it off manually.

**Author's Note:**

> Jon, after finding out Martin is part of the web and seeing a spider: oh g-d is that martin


End file.
